About 35 members of various law enforcement and emergency medical agencies are on the scene Sunday afternoon where human remains were recently discovered in the Flat Rock community.

According to Sheriff Graham Atkinson, a stroll in the woods late last week led to the grisly discovery of a badly-preserved portion of a human skull.

“On Friday night, there was a guy up here running some coon dogs, and he found what he thought was a skull,” he said.

After the unnamed resident contacted members of the Mount Airy Police Department, the sheriff’s office was notified and members of the three agencies went to the scene.

“We discovered the upper part of a human skull, with the lower jaw missing,” Atkinson confirmed.

A search was immediately initiated to determine whether there are any more body parts on the property, located on West Parkview Drive in the Flat Rock community.

“We’re still on the scene and plan to be here a while searching,” Atkinson said late Sunday morning.

The sheriff’s office is being assisted at the scene by members of the State Bureau of Investigation and members of the Pilot Mountain, Mount Airy and Dobson rescue squads, who are also providing equipment and four-wheelers for the search.

“Our plan is to continue searching the area for remains,” Atkinson.

The skull, which he said “appears to have been here for some time and has been exposed to the weather for an extended period of time” will be sent to the state medical examiner’s office to determine whether DNA can be extracted.

Atkinson said at this time there is no clue as to the identify of the partial cadaver.

“We’re keeping all our options open,” he said. “At this point, there is nothing to identify the person. We’ll have to depend on DNA.”